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Lin, one of the 65 leprosy sufferers in the village, cooks in the kitchen. The difference of appearance and wrong knowledge about leprosy cause strong prejudice from nearby people. The villagers are seen as “devils”. As a result, these leprosy survivors barely walk out of the village.

A village of convalescent leprosy patients in Southern China. Despite their misfortunate situations, these patients show strength and grace in their simple daily life.

Lin, one of the 65 leprosy sufferers in the village, cooks in the kitchen. The difference of appearance and wrong knowledge about leprosy cause strong prejudice from nearby people. The villagers are seen as “devils”. As a result, these leprosy survivors barely walk out of the village.

A leprosy sufferer walks uphill with a wooden prosthetic tied to his right leg. Amputation is a common result of leprosy, and a lot of sufferers in this village were using wooden legs until five years ago, which are often unstable, in poor quality and might cause skin infections. This villager is the only one in town who still uses the wooden material.

Uncle Xia rushes backwards to wash his cleaning buckets. He is one of the few younger leprosy sufferers in the village and he helps to manage the multifunction room and carry heavy stuff for the elders.

“Peanut” Zhong rests in his room with a poster of Chairman Mao that has been hanging up for decades. Around the 1960s when the leprosy sufferers formed this village, it was required all over the country to hang such iconography in homes to show respect.

Lin serves tea to Bodhisattva Guanyin at early dawn. He visits this small Buddhist temple on a hill every morning to pray to Guanyin for a better next-life. Guanyin, which represents the power of “Observing the cries of the world” is one of the most popular Buddhist bodhisattva’s in China.

One of the leprosy sufferers is teaching the rest a Christian song in the multifunction room. On the right column, a poster of Mao still hangs there from long ago. Next to this image of Mao, a villager absent-mindedly gazes into the distance.
Christianity has been introduced to this village by different NGOs in the past 10 years. Some of the villagers have become Christian.

Villagers watch the evening news, though with poor reception, in the multifunction room. Uncle Xia takes off his plastic leg because of the hot weather. This village did not have a television until five years ago.

Luo carefully checks a hole in her shoe. The villagers do not have much clothing, so they mend the ripped ones multiple times. She figures out ways to handle tools like needles, though her fingers are permanently disfigured due to leprosy.

Huang eats in her kitchen and talks about her ‘daughter’. 17 years ago, she and another villager found a baby abandoned on a nearby road. They brought this baby girl back to the village to raise her up. The girl left the village a couple years ago and has not made any contact with them since. Huang does not know where she is.

An elderly lady, her name unknown to the other villagers, guards her door. She blocks her windows and doors with clothes, spending most days and nights in the dark. She does not communicate to the others because of her mental illness.

Unable to take care for herself, the mentally ill lady mentioned above, uses these buckets as her bathroom. Sometimes she can’t control and she wets herself on the bed. Her kind neighbor cooks for her.

Two villagers receive intravenous glucose infusion with the help of other villagers. With no doctors readily available, a Catholic priest (who is also a physician) visits them a couple times a year, bringing medical supplies, giving medical care, and teaching the villagers how to carry out simple medical procedures.

Children's clothes blowing in the wind. Leprosy sufferers can give birth to children without passing the disease. Some of these healthy offspring have left the village permanently and would like nothing to do with their parents because of embarrassment, while some of this second generation go to bigger cities for work and leave the third generation in the village for a couple of years before taking them away. It’s a very rare case that the sons and daughters of convalescent leprosy parents will take them with them because of the strong prejudices in the outside world. The average age in this village is around 75. Seven years ago, the population was about 90, but since then, has decreased to about 65 people.